EOTO Confirmation Bias

 

Conformation bias is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories. It was first described by Peter Wason in 1960 in which he performed a study proving people falsify their beliefs and have bias in their decision making process. It is a biased approach to making a decision which usually leads to being unintentional and efficient because it was the easy answer that goes with ones previous ideas. This concept distorts reality from evidence due to the fact that the decision is made through personal conformation. 

This theory can affect our society today through many aspects including medicine, law, and relationships. Even doctors will sometimes have bias towards treatment or diagnosis of a patient due to their previous bias. As well as relationships because of either previous knowledge, he said she said, or miscommunication which all lead to having an impression of someone before even knowing or meeting them. People see what they want to see and don't want to be told they are wrong, it is human nature to want positive reinforcement and have bias towards people, ideas, or things. 

Conformation bias can also effect the world of communication and the media with which stories are pitched, who is interviewed,  and what information is gathered and featured. This happens throughout journalism, politics, social media, job interviews, etc. Our brains initially will go for the easy instinct answer. 

I can see how conformation bias has affected me and my generation in the past dealing with relationships and friendships and pre judgment. Our society is so used to everything digital and online communication through social media that we automatically have a pre judgement regarding someone via what they post online. I can see how this leads to conformation bias regarding relationships, we tend to either interpret someone as being a certain way based on existing beliefs and actions of someone similar acting that way. This is evident even on college campus's with sororities and fraternities. If someone hears someone is in a certain sorority and you go to meet them, you will automatically have the sororities image and character placed on them with a biased distorted behavior. 

A way that we can overcome conformation bias is simply by looking at the other point of view, we tend to lean towards the reassuring answer that we are comfortable with and can defend easily. However, if we look at topics, people, things in another light and overcome the pride of being wrong as well as looking for reasoning beforehand, there will be less bias. 

Overall, conformation bias affects everyone. It can affect a job interview thinking someone isn't good enough for the job because they are too young or too old, a man or a woman. It can affect politics, how certain stories are perceived by the way the editor or host verbally explains the topic. The reason for these are due to humans wanting to be right to feel good, making an easy choice, and staying with the safe route.